Published: Saturday, February 16, 2013 at 08:00 AM.

There hasn’t been a report of one since Feb. 4, and those who work to rehabilitate sick and injured sea turtles are hoping winter ends without a third wave of turtles rescued from cold inshore waters.

“We hope it will start warming up soon,” said Sarah Finn, coastal wildlife biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

But this weekend will be a cold one to watch.

North Carolina has had a reported 135 cold-stunned turtles rescued from state waters since Dec. 23, with the state’s three aquariums and sea turtle rehabilitation centers stepping up to care for the turtles until they have been healthy enough to release.

On Friday, more than 30 of the rehabilitated turtles were on their way to warm waters to be released.

Staff with the Wildlife Resources Commission and the N.C. Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores carried 35 sea turtles to the Coast Guard station at Fort Macon for the trip to the Gulf Stream.

There hasn’t been a report of one since Feb. 4, and those who work to rehabilitate sick and injured sea turtles are hoping winter ends without a third wave of turtles rescued from cold inshore waters.

“We hope it will start warming up soon,” said Sarah Finn, coastal wildlife biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

But this weekend will be a cold one to watch.

North Carolina has had a reported 135 cold-stunned turtles rescued from state waters since Dec. 23, with the state’s three aquariums and sea turtle rehabilitation centers stepping up to care for the turtles until they have been healthy enough to release.

On Friday, more than 30 of the rehabilitated turtles were on their way to warm waters to be released.

Staff with the Wildlife Resources Commission and the N.C. Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores carried 35 sea turtles to the Coast Guard station at Fort Macon for the trip to the Gulf Stream.

The turtles were initially loaded aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Block Island Thursday morning, but there was a quick change of plans after the cutter had to return to port.

After an overnight stay at the N.C. Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores or other nearby facilities, the turtles were headed back out on the 50-mile trip to the Gulf Stream aboard a 47-foot lifeboat stationed at Fort Macon.

Staff from the aquarium at Pine Knoll Shore brought 21 of the turtles that they have had in their care, including 18 green turtles and two Kemp’s ridley sea turtles.

Most of the turtles were rescued in late January from the Cape Lookout area. Sea turtles are cold-blooded reptiles and when exposed to cold for prolonged periods can suffer from a hypothermic reaction known as cold stunning.

“They recovered pretty quickly. Most of them, after going through a slow warming period, were very active and eating well and some needed some antibiotics and needed a little more time to recover,” said Wendy Cluse, conservation and research coordinator for the aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.

The Pine Knoll Shores aquarium still has two cold-stunned turtles it is caring for and are not yet healthy enough for release.

“One is not eating well and we want to see him put on some weight. Another has been very lethargic since we’ve had him and we have him on antibiotics,” Cluse said.

Finn and Matthew Godfrey, state sea turtle biologist with WRC, each brought seven turtles to be released by the Coast Guard.

Finn said the seven she brought were rehabilitated at the aquarium at Fort Fisher and included cold-stunned turtles from North Carolina and from a major cold-stunning event in the Northeast.

Godfrey brought recovered sea turtles from the aquarium at Roanoke Island and two rehabilitated at an aquarium in South Carolina.

Finn said the Fort Fisher aquarium is still caring for at least two cold-stunned turtles, and the Roanoke Island Museum still has some as well.

The cooperative efforts of all the agencies involved in rehabilitating sick and injured sea turtles so that they can be returned to the wild makes each release a special one, Cluse said.

“The great part of working at the aquarium and this job is getting to see that we are really helping,” she said. “We all work in collaboration to make it happen.”